Sunday, Feb 07, 2010

WHM064: Brody Update and Playlist Part 2

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Brody is our guest host, updating us on some of the shows he's been seeing: Alberta Cross and Daredevil Christopher Wright. He is heading over to New York for a visit, stalking Laura Marling and Citizen Cope. Plus, an event that he's organizing on February 23rd at the Fine Line Cafe.

Doors 7pm, Music 7:30pm
18+ Show!!
Cover $7 for 21+ / $10 for 18+
Now, Now Every Children
Gold Motel
Total Babe

Also, what Vu's been listening to: Looper, Baxendale, Music Go Music, Belinda Carlisle, Tilly and the Wall, Reverend and the Makers, Helium .... and rediscover Spandau Ballet!

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Saturday, Feb 06, 2010

WHM063: Playlist (Part 1)

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Sally and Kristen tells us their playlist for weheartmusic.com

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Tuesday, Feb 02, 2010

WHM062: Playground Weekender Preview

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Sally, Kristen, and Vu preview Playground Weekender for weheartmusic.com .. Reminder that you can win a pair of tickets (worth over $400) by simply sending an email to sally@weheartmusic.com with the subject header of "Playground Weekender" and you'll be entered into the contest. Please note that it ends February 10th.

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Wednesday, Jan 27, 2010

WHM061: The Big Day Out

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This #61 show is basically revolves around Sally & Kristen's and their The Big Day Out misadventures.

Big Day Out's 100 show was on 1/22/2010 (Friday), which S&K attended. This podcast show is pretty good, I had an especially good time picking all the songs.


Here are some 140-character reporting and photographs from the music festival. Please note that all time-stamp may not be accurate - due to the We Heart Music Twitter being localized to US-Central time.


For those just tuning in, it looks like Sally & Kristen, are drunk at the Big Day Out Music Festival in Sydney. #vun
7:42 AM Jan 22nd from web


10:46am. Vodka. Big Day Out. Sydney. Today. Ready.
10:47 AM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Bluejuice. Yellow jumpsuits. Inflatable lizard (?) mmm love it.
12:35 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Karnivool. Boooooo. Quick! More beer!
1:08 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Excuse me sir, I think your high vis vest is too small.
1:28 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Mastodon: sounds like my tummy rumbling. Marginally more tuneful than Karnivool. Marginally. Kristen going to the lav. No more beer for her.
1:46 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Kasabian: oh yeah..... and don't the kids just love it.
2:37 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


I'm on fiiiiire.....
3:02 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Too farken hot!
3:55 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Hilltop hoods: nice white shoes.
4:30 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Discussing thin legs policy with The Horrors. I wish. They were pretty farkin awesome to tell you the truth
5:45 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck


Back in the hood. Thankyou big day out for a splendid day for a Nanna. :)
8:24 PM Jan 22nd from TweetDeck

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Sunday, Jan 10, 2010

WHM060: Britpop on Film

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BRITPOPCAST #7: BRITPOP ON FILM

Sally & I talked about Live Forever, The Britpop Story, Britpop Now, 24 Hour Party People, and Trainspotting.

Between Live Forever and The Britpop Story, I prefered the later because it was short, concise and more focused. On the other hand, Sally prefered Live Forever because it was the opposite of what The Britpop Story was.

Live Forever seems to be over zealous and over-reaching when it came to trying to organize the whole Britpop thing, including talking about fashion and art. My biggest complaint was that they focused too much on Massive Attack, which I felt didn't fit in. What I liked about Live Forever was that they had most of the big popstars, excluding Brett Anderson of Suede, which was absent from most of the documentary.

PS, I apologize for my nasal problem, it's cold here and you know how it is (I think I'm coming down with a cold).

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Wednesday, Dec 30, 2009

WHM059: The Girls of Britpop - Wave 2

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Subscribe to our show at http://www.gcast.com/u/WeHeartMusic/ , more information at http://podcast.weheartmusic.com.

BRITPOPCAST #6: THE GIRLS OF BRITPOP (wave 2)

The show was actually longer, but I'm including more Jarvis-stalking festivities until next week. This week is all about the second wave of girls of Britpop (the first wave consists of Powder, Sleeper, Salad, Echobelly, Elastica). Since we've talked so much about them already, I thought talking about the second wave was a little more interesting.

Second wave:

* Kenickie (Lauren Laverne - all girls band)
o Kenickie, believe it or not, was the only all-girls Britpop band. There was another band called Fluffy around this era, but they were more hard-rock than brit-pop. While Fluffy's ultimate was branded with "eight tits no talent", Kenickie was more loved in general. While their music is often more polished punk/pop early on, they shifted their sound to more lounge for their second album. Obviously the band was still in their infancy ... but eventually broke up shortly after the second album.
* Lush (Miki Berenyi & Emma Anderson)
o In early Lush's history, they were two best friends, Miki Berenyi & Emma Anderson. They were fanzine producers, and started their own band based on their love of shoegazing music with their EPs and debut album Spooky. You can hear their love of melodies as they sing in and out. Of course, when you have two songwriters, they often clash if they have other interests. In this case, at the time Split came out in 1994, some of the songs were clearly "britpop"esque. Even the naming of the album (Split) was an indication, between aggressive pop songs like "Kiss Chase" and "Hypocrite" - the britpop songs would later continue with "Ladykiller" and their ultimate britpop moment with Jarvis Cocker on "Ciao!" While I did tend to like the Miki songs, Emma did coin a few great pop gems like "Shake Baby Shake" (which is about the love of her car).
o When we heard that drummer, Chris Acland committed suicide by hanging himself, we all knew the band would be split up after this. And it's true, they never quite recover. I was lucky enough to catch them before the tragedy and continued to follow to see what the band's been up to. The last I heard, Emma is in Sing-Sing, which had a great pop song called "Feels Like Summer".
* Catatonia (Cerys Matthews)
o Since we previously talked about Catatonia in our previous Welsh Britpop bands, I'll only briefly mention them here. The thing with Catatonia for me was that each of their song was either a hit or miss... no inbetween feeling. I either hated or love it. But the songs I really love, I really love, so that makes up for them. I love the way Cerys sings, in fact, all Welsh people have a particularly weird accent to them and it's always a nice earful when you do hear them sing or talk. It's like they're speaking English, but learned it from another planet.
o Favorite songs: "Mulder & Scully", "I Am the Mob", "Karaokee Queen", "Road Rage", "Dead from the Waist Down"
* Theaudience (Sophie Ellis-Bextor)
o This was a very brief band from 97-99, fronted by Sophie Ellis-Bextor - who went on to have a series of very successful Eurodisco releases. I must admit, I never followed the band that much - they arrived a little too late for me. I didn't buy their debut album (it was never released in the US), but managed to get their debut single, "I Got the Wherewithal". The song is quite good, and even their b-side "Penis Size and Cars" is amusingly catchy.
* Bis (Amanda MacKinnon)
o I love this Scottish band. Although they were far too "kiddish" in their cute unreadable spellings and anime-influence, they were pretty damn cute and catchy. Songs like "Kandy Pop" topped many playlist around this time, although in retrospect, looking back, it was a pretty mindless dum (dumb as in DUM) song. Unfortunately, many people, including myself, didn't regard Bis as a Britpop band, but they're often grouped in. My favorite song: "Action & Drama"!


Honorable mentions:

* Black Box Recorder (Sarah Nixey)
o Very catchy/dancey, but not Britpop. Their bassist is Luke Haines, formerly of the Britpop band The Auteurs.
* Dubstar (Sarah Blackwood)
o This British act came out during the birth of Britpop, but they were far too alternative-dance/electronica to be considered Britpop. The singer is Sarah Blackwood, who, I reckon the band ditched toward their later music releases.
* Sneaker Pimps (Kelli Dayton)
* Fluffy
* Republica (Saffron)
* Fat Les (Lily Allen sings on their last single???)

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Sunday, Nov 29, 2009

WHM058: Q Magazine's Britpop Quiz

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Recorded in the same session as Britpop Top Ten Countdown (which I still consider the best show ever), this super hard quiz was written by some hardcore journalist at Q Magazine, published in a paperback book called Q Quiz Book. The book is free, along with Q Greatest Rock & Pop Miscellany Book, as bonuses for an annual subscription. I got the book via one of their magazine off the stand.

Some questions are dubious, as far as Britpop is concern, like The Verve question... but overall one of the better quiz out there.

The later part of the show, we talk a bit about The Abercrombie Hotel closing down, Pavement, and Empire of the Sun.

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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009

WHM057: Britpop Top Ten Countdown

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Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

b>BRITPOPCAST #4: TOP TEN BRITPOP COUNTDOWN

This is the best of the best, and as far as I'm concern, this is the best countdown ever. If you had to listen to just one of our podcast, I think this the one you have to listen to.

Going into the recording, we already knew that it would be one massive recording session that will be split into two parts. So the first part is the countdown, thirty of our favorite Britpop tunes. The second part will be uploaded next week and involves a very hard Britpop Q Magazine Quiz. Seriously, it was hard, even for seasoned veterans like ourselves.

The next show, some ideas: Britpop girl bands ? Britpop band reunions ? If those doesn't sound appealing, let me know what you'd like us to discuss. Otherwise, I can always talk hours on end about stalking Louise Wener.

As for the Britpop top list, these are our preference and not a mean to measure how important a band is to that genre. Also, obviously we all had our Pulp, Blur, and Oasis moment, but the choice in songs are interesting to note. I have always known that my top two are the Blur vs Oasis, it was the other eight that was hard to have placement. I could have easily had a top 20 or 30. Easily.

Some honorable mentions should be sent to Cast, Salad, Charlatans.

Vu

10. Gene - Sleep Well Tonight
09. Echobelly - I Can't Imagine the World Without Me
08. The Bluetones - Bluetonic
07. Shed Seven - Dolphin
06. Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie
05. Pulp - Disco 2000
04. Elastica - Stutter
03. Suede - Metal Mickey
02. Blur - Girls and Boys
01. Oasis - SupersonicSally

10. SFA - Ice Hockey Hair
09. Doves - Pounding
08. Teenage Fanclub - Sparky's Dream
07. Blur - Sunday Sunday
06. Suede - Animal Nitrate
05. The Coral - Dreaming of You
04. Ocean Colour Scene - The Day We Caught the Train

03. Dodgy - Good Enough
02. Pulp - Babies

01. Stone Roses - Fools GoldKristen

10. MSP - Motorcycle Emptiness
09. South - Keep Close

08. Pulp - Acrylic Afternoons
07. Oasis - Columbia

06. Wendys - Pulling My Fingers Off
05. Supergrass - Moving
04. Blur - This is a Low
03. Oasis - The Masterplan
02. Suede - Killing of a Flash Boy
01. Pulp - Sheffield: Sex City

If you like what you heard, and you happen to be in Sydney in early December, DJ Sal is doing her bits at britpop.com.au.

PS, stay after the song and you're in for a Buzzcocks treat.
 document.write(document.lastModified); ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

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Saturday, Oct 24, 2009

WHM056: Welsh Britpop Bands

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BRITPOPCAST #3: WELSH BRITPOP BANDS
This show was recorded on Saturday morning at 12.30am with Sally. I was half tired and half unprepared... but lots of fun on this episode about Welsh Britpop bands.

Welsh bands we focused on: Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Catatonia, Stereophonics, and 60ft Dolls.

The second part, which is more like a post script is that Sally will be DJing Jarvis Cocker/Pulp music for an hour on December 5th in anticipation and celebration of Cocker touring in Australia around that date. Come stalk her in Sydney, more details on britpop.com.au.

Below is the interview Sal did with singer Gruff Rhys from SFA, originally pubished in Kill the Cod fanzine.

KILL THE COD INTERVIEWS GRUFF RHYS

Whilst attending a smashing concert at Newcastle Uni (25th.Feb), i managed, as well as being able to watch three of my favourite bands (Lavish, Super Furry Animals and Custard), i was able to have a chat to a Mr Gruff Rhys, the lead singer of the Super Furries. So here is the story of that night....................................................................................*sally*

What's the deal with all the Welsh bands that have been touring Australia lately?
It's really funny, you know, we used to share the same amps as Catatonia and we shared drummers, we've known members of Catatonia since I was...you know...

So you lived near them?
ah...Catatonia are from North Wales and we're from South Wales...your in bands for years playing along and it's...so surreal, you know...we'll be playing in Melbourne the same night as Catatonia and we'll probably meet up with them after...and I saw them in a pub in Cardiff before coming over...

So it's just coincidence that you, Catatonia and the Manic Street Preachers have all decided to tour Australia at the same time?
Yeah...cos Wales is a small place...you bump into everyone and you meet everyone...the music is quite different...you know? Everyone does their own thing, so no one is in competition with each other...it's great you know...to meet up in exotic locations

How do you like playing with Lavish and, tonight, Custard?
well...I haven't heard Custard and I hadn't heard Lavish until last week


How do you feel about not being the headlining band tonight (Newcastle Uni)?
That's fine...yeah...I mean we've never played in Australia before and no one's heard of us practically...you know..we sort of have just started out in Australia, so it's great to be number 1 and number 2...it's good to have an audience...I don't care about headlining...you know, I think that's secondary to the music true true...

So how did the Super Furry Animals form?
ahh...we started recording in Dafydd's house about five years ago (points to Dafydd)...this doesn't translate on tape..um..that short guy with the brown shirt..um..we had a home studio..we spent a few years writing songs and before that me and Dafydd were in a band called Ffa Coffi Pawb, Guto and Bunf were in a band, and Cian had his own band and Cian is Dafydd's brother so he used to hang out with us...and by this time me Cian and Dafydd had moved down from North Wales to Cardiff and we knew Bunt and Guto from the days in Ffa Coffi Pawb, we were all in Welsh punk rock bands you know..then we spent two years in the house writing songs and playing around and um...then we decided to start playing live...we did a few gigs and then we got together to release a single on a label called Ankst and so it's one of those freaky things...we'd played about two gigs and we sent a copy to the NME or something and we got a slot in a pub in London and about 10 journalists came to see us and wrote rave reviews...we went to London again the week after and played in another pub and there was about 40 record companies and they all wanted a piece and...it was really strange and easy and then we did an album for Creation...we've been in bands for 10 years making music and suddenly you get offered this chance to record the albums of your dreams you know..and come to places like Australia to play

Are you enjoying Australia?
Yeah...I didn't know what to expect at all and it's a good place and um...i'm looking forward to coming back...yeah I want to come back

I don't know if you've ever been asked this but...i've got a game called Actua Soccer at home..
..oh yeah...

and I notice a SFA team with you running around the field...so how did you get into that?
well...we were making a video and we didn't have many pictures and we wanted to walk into the screen and change into football players and so we got in contact with these people and they did it free for us and...but they fucked up cos..we selected a team of all our heros..um...we had..i think Che Guevara was in goal, Nelson Mandella on the wing..i think Lou Reed was in the team and...Fidel Castro and...Frank Zappa on the wing, etcetera, etcetera and the five of us...apparently they've put like..Stalin and Ghengis Khan on the team and it's horrible cos they lost the piece of paper we sent them so they put all these wankers in, you know...it's really bad...so we're all embarrassed it's still an alright game though I prefer Fifa 98

yeah...me too... What football teams do you support?
Bangor City...their in the league of Wales............ah a bug (on the ground).........yeah..i support Bangor City in the league of Wales and I support Cardiff City who are in the third division of the English league even though it's a Welsh team...um...I support Barcelona and Bilbao in the Spanish league...who do you support?

I support Arsenal and it's not just because they won the FA cup and that, I had been supporting them for years, so don't get any ideas
o.k....i know some Arsenal fans

What is your favourite telly show ever?
well...Calimero...it's like a Czech cartoon. Calimero is a little black chicken with half a shell on its head and um...I did have a photo of him (searches his pocket and wallet)...he's like the only black chicken in a family of yellow chickens and it gets translated into Welsh so we used to watch it in Welsh on Welsh TV and i've met Japanese people...it's been translated into Japanese and Italian and in Scotland it's in English with an Italian accent so Calimero's catch phrase is "It's an injustice" (in an Italian accent) and um..in Welsh it's (Welsh words-sorry ) which is "there's no flavour to life"..it's this depressed chicken..it's a cartoon for kids but, you know...Calimero...god guy..one of the greats

How do you Kill the Cod?
Are you an active fisher?

it's actually out of the Goodies
Ah yeah...i saw a band a few weeks ago and they've got Graeme Garden's son on keyboards...he's got the same smile...that's quite amazing..i don't'know if I endorse killing cod..so maybe we should let it swim..you know.
  10/24/2009 20:06:30 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

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Sunday, Oct 18, 2009

WHM055: Paul McCartney Interview by Colin Richardson

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Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS), more information at podcast.weheartmusic.com.

Please enjoy this special episode of We Heart Music Radio as Sally & I figure out the best way to handle our ever-busy schedule.

This week, we were sent a 20-minute recording of Sir Paul McCartney as he talked about his post-Wings album, McCartney II (originally called On His Own). Special thanks to Colin Richardson and HOBO - Coventry Music Magazine for putting this together.

Richardson writes:In May 1980, towards the end of my "journalist" days, I got an invite to the EMI press reception for Paul McCartney's solo album, "On his own", at Abbey Road studios. I was one of about 100 scribes from all parts of the globe and the set up was very efficient...15 or so oblong tables, each with 8 chairs and the plan was that Paul would move from table to table, spending exactly 20 minutes at each. I managed to get one of the end chairs, thus ensuring that I would be facing the star when he sat down...yes, I was that pushy! When our turn came, I opened the session with what I hoped was some humorous banter, thus getting Paul's attention for when the real questions started. It seems to have worked, since I managed to ask the majority of them....hey, all's fair in love, war and journalism! Well, take a listen...and please don't judge too harshly! I was just 'doing my job!' From the interview, it was quite interesting to hear about McCartney's Japan problem, first with his midly-offensive title, "Frozen Jap" song, and then his apology for the whole country when their tour got canceled (due to his arrest for marijuana in Tokyo circa January 1980).

It was revealed later through a BBC article, in McCartney's own words:I was out in New York and I had all this really good grass. We were about to fly to Japan and I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything to smoke over there. This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me.McCartney spent ten days in jail, then deported from the country.
Of course, these kind of stories doesn't surprise me. I mean, just look at some of the Beatles songs, like "Day Tripper", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Still, despite the Japanese problems, McCartney II, went straight to #1 in the UK and #3 in the US charts.
 10/18/2009 19:45:38 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com

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